Seallam! Visitor Centre was officially opened by
Alasdair Morrison MSP and John MacDonald, Fort William and Northton in July
2000

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See our new site at www.hebridespeople.com for information on all our services and for access to our online genealogical databases

Seallam! is the premier Visitor Centre on the beautiful
Isle of Harris and provides exhibition facilities to
suit all degrees of interest, with a main static exhibition for the first-time
visitor and changing displays
for the many return visitors. There are also visiting exhibitions at times
through the year.

You can browse among exhibits
dealing with the history and natural environment of the Hebrides,
or consult more detailed sources of information in the Research Area.

For the visitor, here is a chance to get to know some of
the factors which have had an influence on the development of the various
Island communities, while for the more serious student there is a vast
resource of detailed source information from different parts of the Hebrides.
Whether you wish to spend an hour or a whole day, there is plenty to occupy
your attention at Seallam!
And if you feel the need, there is a tea and coffee bar in the small
craft-shop in the reception area!

Seallam! Visitor Centre is located in An Taobh Tuath
(Northton) at the southern end of the Isle of Harris.
It occupies a central position among the Isles of the Hebrides, with road
connection to Lewis,
and car ferries to the Uists and Barra.

Bill Lawson has been specialising in the Family and Social
History in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland for over forty years, and is widely
recognised as an authority in the area.

Virtually every household in the Western Isles in the last
200 years has been researched and a resource bank of over 27,500 family tree
sheets has been ingathered, together with many emigrant families in Canada,
USA, Australia etc.

Family tracing in the Outer Hebrides has always proved
difficult, due to the scarcity and poor quality of source material, but from
the resource available at Co Leis Thu it is usually possible to chart
families back to the generation born c1750-80 - and frequently much farther.

With the opening of Co Leis Thu, information from this
resource can now be made available to genealogists and researchers as a
professional service.

We use the following sources:

Census Returns 1841-1901

Civil Registrations of Births, Marriages and Deaths from
1855 onwards

Old Parish Registers (Established Church and Roman
Catholic)

Estate Papers, including rental rolls

Emigration Lists

Government Papers and other published sources

Oral Tradition

Oral tradition has always been strong in these islands,
and since it is preserved in Gaelic, which is still in normal usgae here, it
is more comprehensive and often much more reliable than many written sources
in English.

Large collections of oral tradition have been, and still
are being, gathered in conjunction with local Comuinn Eachdraidh (History
Groups), and this resource can be used to expand and correct information
taken from more formal sources for the researcher.

Oral tradition includes patronymics, song, story and
preservation of family relationships.

SERVICES AVAILABLE

For families still based in the Outer Hebrides, pedrigree
charts can be prepared showing all lines of direct ancestry, so far as can be
traced. 5-6 generations is not unusual, but this depends on the available
source material.

Average Fee for this service: £20 to £80 plus VAT

Extracted entries or certified copies of registers can be
obtained for an additional fee.

EMIGRANT FAMILIES

Many visitors to the Islands are disappointed in tracing
their families here, due to lack of information on the family after
emigration. Useful data would include the island of origin, the place of
original emigrant settlement, local census entries, family naming patterns
etc. With information of this type, it is usually possible to trace the
village from which the family emigrated, and to make links with any relatives
remaining here.

Fees depend on the amount of research required, which in
turn depends on the quality and detail of information supplied as a starting
point. On receipt of data, we will be happy to advise on estimated fees.

GENERAL NOTES ON WESTERN ISLES GENEALOGY

One of the major problems with family tracing in the
Western Isles is the scarcity and poor quality of written records.span>The decennial census is available from
1841 onwards, but its accuracy is very questionable, especially in the
earlier years. Civil Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages commences
in 1855, as in the rest of Scotland, but there are many omissions in the
early years. As late as 1897, in Barvas Parish, Lewis, there occurs a whole
year with almost no entries, and in all areas the accuracy of the information
is very poor, especially in matters such as mothers' maiden names etc.

Old Parish Registers are available for most parishes, but
again their coverage is very variable. Those for Barvas and Stornoway
Parishes in Lewis commence in the early 1800s, with a handful of earlier
entries, and are reasonably comprehensive. The OPR for Uig, Lewis, begins in
the 1820s with good detail, but its content deteriorates after a few years,
and the information becomes minimal. Lochs, Lewis, also begins in the 1820s,
but is never particularly good, even for the main parish, while records for the
detached part of the parish, around Carloway and Shawbost area, are extremely
poor.

Harris OPR commences in the 1820s also, but after a few
years becomes restricted to the area around the manse, and the merchant and
farming classes, while the crofters who made up by far the bulk of the
population, are virtually ignored. North Uist OPR covers only the area around
the central church of Kilmuir, and does not includes the mission stations of
Carinish and Trumisgarry, which accounted for fully half of the population,
who do not appear in any register. South Uist and Barra were, and are, almost
wholly Roman Catholic islands, and the OPR coverage of the few Protestant
families is very poor, though there are excellent RC records for parts of the
OPR period.

In using any of these written sources, it is essential to
bear in mind that the people of the Islands were overwhelmingly Gaelic
speaking, whereas these records were kept by English-speakers, whose
knowledge and interest in the local people was often slight. The translations
of Gaelic names often depended on the whim of the individual registrar, and
as registrars changed, so did the names in the Register. Apart from the usual
mixture of Catherine/Kate, Margaret/Peggy which occur inspan>all registers, the island registers also
confuse Angus/Aeneas, Finlay/Philip, Effie/Euphemia/Henrietta, Marion/Sarah,
Gormelia/Dorcas/Dorothy, Rebecca/Betsy/Sophie, and very many more. It is not
at all uncommon, especially with girls' names, to find birth, marriage and
death registrations all showing different variant translations.

Because of these problems, there seemed to be no point in
making any attempt to reproduce the actual names shown in register entries
etc. Instead we have used our own standardised equivalents of names, which, although
in a sense equally arbitrary, are at least consistent. So Christina,
Christian, Christine, Christy, Chirsty etc. are all shown as Kirsty, as being
the nearest equivalent in sound to the Gaelic Ciorstag - which is the name
the lady would have used herself!

Dates can be another problem with Island families. Those
derived from Civil Registration of Marriages and Deaths are generally
accurate, though those of Births are much less so. OPR entries often do not
distinguish between dates of birth and baptism, which especially in the
remoter areas could be quite different. Census ages are notoriously
inaccurate, but in most cases an average has been taken from census, OPR etc.
to give the dates of birth shown. Dates of deaths, taken from civil
registration, have been shown, up to 1920, and dates of marriages, where
shown, are taken from that source or from OPR. Individual extract entries can
be obtained if desired, at extra cost.

To make up for the deficiencies of these usual sources, we
have to rely on secondary sources, such as Estate Rentals etc, many of which
show names in patronymic form, and on oral tradition. This latter is often
discounted by genealogists, as it cannot usually be proved, but it should be
remembered that it is of local origin, and consequently likely to be more
accurate than many of the written records compiled by outsiders. These
sources can frequently be used to extend family trees into the early or
middle eighteenth century, and sometimes much further.

If further information is
desired on our methodology, or on the service we can provide, we will be
happy to respond to any specific enquiries.